Improved iron front for buildings



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JOHN ALEXANDER, OF GREENPOIN'IbAND NATHANIEL J. BUR- CHELL, OF NEW YORK,N. Y. i

Letters Patent No. 90,478, dated May 25, 1869.

IMPROVED' IRON FRONT FOR BUILDINGS.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of thesame.

To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that we, JOHN ALEXANDER, of Green- I point, in the county ofKings, and Stat-e of -New York,

and NATHAMEL J BURCHELL, of New York city, in the same State, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Fronts for Buildings;and we do hereby declare that the following isa full and exactdescription thereof.

We will iirst describe what we consider the best means of carrying outour invention, and will afterwards designate the points which we believeto be new therein.

The accompanying drawings form a part of this specification.

Figure l is a front view, and

Figure 2 is vertical section of the front, or, rather, the upper part ofthe front of a dwelling, constructed according to our invention. Theupper story is made with plain joints, andthe next below with ashlarjoints.

Figure 3 is a rear view, and

Figure 4, a horizontal section of one of the pieces, on a larger scale.This is a piece between the windows.

Figure 5 is a rear, and

Figure 6, a horizontal section of one of the pieces over the windows, orwhere the pieces form continuous tiers. o

Figure 7 is a vertical section of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all thefigures.

Our fronts are mainly masonry, laid in mortar, so as to afford theproper thickness and strength, but it is faced with a thin coating ofcast-iron.

The iron is made in plates or sections, and fastened together, and alsofastened or anchored in the masonry, and is coated, so as to imitate,very perfectly and neatly, stone surface.

Iron buildings have been many years known, and are greatly approved.While possessing very great advantages over any other material, they areopen to objections. They are expensive, and conduct heat too freely,transmitting heat from the interior outward iu winter, and from theexterior inward in summer, under the indue-nce .of the sun.

To remedy this last diiiiculty, brick-work has been placed within theiron shell, but the expense has been thereby increased, and made almostinsupportable| for general purposes.

Our invention provides a good non-conductor, while having all theordinary qualities of masonry walls, with a thin surface of iron.

The latter is not intended to contribute strength, to

any great extent.

We make the faces of a length and height corre-y spending to blocks ofstone.

We can make the surface or faces of each piece plane, or we can make itfigured, in imitation of tooled ashlar, or random tooled, or chiselled,or boasted, or pointed.

We can make the work in imitation of rubble, or wev can make itrusticated, if preferred, or we can, in case any part ofthe whole designshould require such work for any peculiar effect, or in case it shouldbe desired by any architect or builder, with a view to provide againstany expansions and contractions by heat and cold', give the whole theappearance due to rough quarry-storie.

Any walls of stone or brick-work may be imitated in our invention, and avariety of patterns may be provided, so as to make a proper'variety inthe imitatioustones, but, in all cases, we make the iron as thin as itwill flow, so as to economizc the metal, and, although badly-broken andirregular brick and stone may he used in the wall behind, it is veryimportant that strong material be there used, and that the thickness,and the mode of laying the stone or brick, be such as will afford a firmand substantial wall without depending upon the iron for strength.

In the drawings- A A, Sac., represent the broad faces of the sections,which represent the stones, and

A A are the flanges.

A2 AI are the eyes, or lugs, which project beyond, and abut togetherlike the fianges, but present broader surfaces.

They form the 'means of firmly securing together the edges of the thincastings Al A.

B are the screw-bolts, which hold these blocks together.

We have constructed several fronts and partial fronts of first-classhouses by this means, preparing the plates A Al A2 of several sizes andforms, adapted to match together and properly form the entire front,taking care to mark each on the back with letters and numbers indicatingtheir position. We nish the edges so that they lit together accurately,and adapt all to be fastened together by screw-bolts, which may be usedindiscriminately in any of the holes.

In putting up a building, we keep the iron-work weight of the fineearth-colored just a little ahead ofthe brick; that is to say, we applytogether, and firmly screw-boltv in place, the several iron sections A AA2, until three or four tiers of such sections have been raised, thenthe iron-workers continue their work while the bricklayers commence toconstruct a strong and hrm wall, C,- close in the rear of the iron shellthus provided.' The brick- Work is continued, closely following theiron-work, and solidly embedding the anchors a, which project backwardfrom centre lugs A3, cast on the rear faces of the iron sections, asrepresented.

We do not consider it essential to the success of our invention that themasonry be tilled out tirmly against the rear of this iron, over thewhole of the surface; in fact, we rather prefer that the face of thebrick-work shall touch the iron only at points, so .as

' to allow a little air-space between the iron and the brick, over agood portion of the surface.

Such spaces make the house warmer in winter and cooler iu summer, andalso allow the thin -iron plates to expand more freely when greatlyheated by thesnn or by any extraordinary cause, such as a`eoniiagration. in an adjacent building. l

The back surfaces of the iron sections maybe left unprepared, or may becoated with bitumen or paint, or any ordinary preservative, but vthevfront should be carefully prepared in imitation of stone.

-The stone, which we preferas the most tasty and rich, and at thepresent time most in vogue, is the soft but durable freestoue, now known'as brownstone.

The benefit of our invention may be realized, in part, by simplypainting the surface with a proper brown color. It may be realized stillbetter by painting it with a proper color, and while the paint is stillfresh and sticky, covering it withlsand, the grains of which are of theproper color, or with sand, the grains of which are of diiferent colors,so mixed as to produce the proper effect.

We have succeeded in producing a very strong, suc-v cessful, andvevidently-durable coating, by a special course ot' preparation, whichwe will now brieiy describe. v

We stir into good, japan varnish about half itsv powder, known in tradeas Princes metallic paint.

, It the castings or sections A A1 A2 are made with ordinary skill, thecomposition may be applied thereto without any previous preparation,further than the ordinary brushing with a wire brush. l lVe 'apply thepreparation by means of an ordinary painter-s brush,

and having thus coated the surface with the semi-duid compound, we dustupon it powdered brown-stone, or

sand yof the same color, or mixtures'of sand of the Y proper color, andthe particles attach themselves by partially embedding themselves in andadhering to the soft coating. We can apply the dry material with a sieveor dredge, or we can strew it on by hand.

Having thus covered the Whole surface with much We can pul'verize chipsor waste pieces of brown-Y stone,.to make the dry material for thesurface, by any mechanical process.

I u case pulver-ized material ot' the right color, or mixtures of sandof such color, are not conveniently accessible, we can employ commonwhite sand, and color it by mixing with it the tuely-pulverized redmaterial known as Princes metallic paint.

It very greatly contributes to the economy due to our invention, toconstruct a number ot' buildings eri--I actly alike. XVe have, in theseveral blocks now in course ot' construction, in one instanceV seven,and in the others nearly as great a number of buildings standingtogether, side by side, each an exact counterpart of its neighbor, sofar, at least, as the front is concerned. In vsuch cases we cancorrespondingly screw-bolt the edges of the plates forming the facingsof one front to the plates which form the faces of the adjacent front,but we do not deem this duplicating or building of fronts in blocksabsolutely essential.

It should be observed, as very important, that in preparing the plateswhich form the angles of any` work, especially at the' edges of thedoors and windows, we increase ythe width of the flanges A, or of thecorresponding angular projection, which extends back from the edge ofthe main part A, so as to form the returns or edge-facing of theapertures for the windows, in other words, the edges ofthe windows ordoors, or of any blank window, in. lour fronts, should show the samematerial as the face proper ofthe building, and should be finished bycoating, in the .same manner as the other parts.

W'hat we claim, ,is-

In the ornamentation and protection of the walls of buildings, theplates A A, with their inward-projecting iianges, bolted or'rivetedtogether in the manner described, and attached or fastened to the walls,by means of the metallic hooks or rods a, and the eyes formed on theinner sides of theouter plates, all constructed and arrangedsubstantially in the manner and for the purpose herein described.

In testimony whereof, we havehereunto set our` Witnesses:

0. C. Lrvnvefs, W. O. DEY.

